Stefanie Schälin

As childcare workers, men are in a contested position. On the one hand, they are in danger of being depicted as the pedophile; on the other, they are expected to bring something new and innovative to the thus-far female-dominated field. These men are experiencing ‘identity dissonance' and have to find ways to manage and facilitate legitimate subject positions as both childcare workers and as men. Applying a perspective of discursive positioning, this article discusses men's positioning practices in nine qualitative interviews conducted with male childcare workers in German-speaking Switzerland. We identified a total of six discursive practices that men engage in to manage identity dissonance and construct a legitimate subject position. We found that men are engaging in a greater variety of practices than have been discussed so far. Unlike findings from other studies of men in female-dominated occupations, ours do not point to a clear-cut typology with regards to hegemonic and alternative masculinities; instead they show a variety of practices that are mobilized throughout all interviews. => http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/7b3d9hmI2zjCU7irm292/full

Increasing men's presence in early childhood education is closely connected to expectations of as well increasing professionalization of the occupation. However, there is also a huge contradictory discourse constructing them as potentially dangerous, somehow suspicious or ill-motivated. Men are not only positioned by but also have to position themselves according to these contradicting discourses. Using discursive psychology (Edley and Wetherell 1997; Davies and Harré 1990) as well as the concept of doing gender (West and Zimmerman 1987, Deutsch 2007) as theoretical framework, we analyze how our interviewees position themselves as male childcare workers by engaging in several discursive practices. The results of the narrative interviews with ten male childcare workers will be introduced. The interviews focused on their entry into the organization, their perceptions of daily routines, and their experiences in the interaction with their female colleagues. Six discursive strategies that men engage in were identified: Three refer to discourses of gender difference, two to equality/sameness and one strategy, which highlights professionalism, seems to move beyond this binary gender structure.